Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Eddie Cantillo The Scorpion King (2002) Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kelly Hu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steven Brand, Bernard Hill, Grant Heslov, Peter Facinelli, Ralf Moeller, Branscombe Richmond, Roger Rees, Sherri Howard, Conrad Roberts, Joseph Ruskin, Esteban Cueto, Nils Allen Stewart, and Amy Hunter Directed By: Chuck Russell Review WARRIOR. LEGEND. KING. This is written by the king of popcorn movies (in my opinion) Stephen Sommers. After making it big with two mummy movies he wrote this as the start of a spin-off series for the character in The Mummy returns. In the notorious city of Gomorrah, an evil ruler is determined to lay waste to all the nomadic peoples of the desert. The few remaining tribes, never natural allies, have to unite or perish. Knowing their enemy relies on the visions of a sorcerer, they hire a skilled assassin, Mathayus to eliminate the visionary. After infiltrating the enemy camp, Mathayus discovers that the sorcerer is in fact a beautiful woman. Rather than eliminate her, he takes her deep into the desert badlands, knowing that the ruler's henchman will stop at nothing to rescue her and bring her back. Seriously wounded in the ensuing battle, Mathayus must find the strength to lead his scrappy band of allies back to Gomorrah for a final confrontation. This film is going to go on my guilty pleasure list whenever I make such a list. This film came out in a time when wrestling was big and popular which is why it's produced the WWE. They got the WWE's most charismatic and likable wrestler The Rock. The Rock does a fairly great job considering I do believe this is his first movie role. Kelly Hu who played Lady Deathstrike in X-Men: United is the beautiful sorceress Cassandra and she's just hot. She pulled a good performance but did I mention she's hot. Michael Clarke Duncan is also in this as Balthazar and he was doing pretty good not as great as some of his other performances but I believe he knew what kind of movie he was in. You can tell its written by Stephen Sommers because only Stephen would have Mathayus as the badass hero, Cassandra as the beautiful love interest and Arpid as the comic relief. Much like Van Helsing, Anna, and Carl. His films are very clichéd, adventurous and action packed. They've made for great fun. This film has great ton of action and has that adventure vibe. It even looks like The Mummy Returns in production design but that's probably because it's a spin-off set in Egypt. The direction from Chuck Russel is pretty good, he's done great films like the mask with Jim Carry and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors tow films I really enjoy. This time around its like he saw the script and said you know what lets have fun with this and tried to take care of the actors so they can put out a good performance. Some of his shots in the action scenes are not always great but that's just from like one scene where Mathayus is about to shoot Memnon but then shoots the guard who's about to ax the kid. Once he gets down from the roof there was like this really bad shot from the camera as he fled. Apparently The Rock is a method actor so in that scene where the fire ants are about to eat his flesh those are real ants he said apparently even though they look fake. The Scorpion King is a fun action-adventure fantasy romp that tries to be just that and nothing more. It has good performances, some pretty decent direction and fairly good writing, some poor shots and effects but its fun from beginning to end. You can ask The Scorpion King no more than that. I'm giving The Scorpion King a three and a half out of five.

luke-a-mcgowan Hello sir, I'll have a sword and sandal movie with extra cheese.The Scorpion King remains one of my most beloved movies of all time. Its not trying to be an Oscar-calibre movie like Gladiator (which is fine coming from someone who found Gladiator boring), rather its just a chance to watch The Rock crush people on the big screen. Dwayne Johnson is definitely in his acting debut here - he is a big beefy guy who can hold his own in the action but don't ask him to do much else. His love scene with Kelly Hu is excruciating (no thanks to the writing) and even his comic timing is a bit iffy (save for one hilarious scene where he suggests to a young street urchin "I'll kill half, you kill half").Director Chuck Russell impresses me with this film. He's definitely the strong point with his well directed fight scenes and good pacing. One of the standouts of hiring The Rock is that you're going to have awesome fight scenes. The Scorpion King's fight scenes are so awesome that I can watch this movie on repeat and never get sick of it. Its clear that they're extremely choreographed - its clear that extras are holding back waiting to fight - but they're still awesome, featuring an array of weapons (conventional and improvised) wielded by awesome beefcakes like Johnson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ralf Moeller and Steven Brand. Some scenes feel completely staged - such as a pitchfork spear managing to land perfectly around Johnson's throat to pin him in place against a never-before-seen piece of wood - but its still awesome fun to watch. Characters often appear where they are needed, despite the implausibility. I can forgive all of this.The Scorpion King is a treat to look at - the visuals are honestly more convincing than some of the big budget fare these days, with a great attention to detail (such as digitally created civilians the size of ants rushing to the aid of a person crushed by a giant gong, despite not having any impact on the story). The sound editing is hit and miss - sometimes a sword will make a metal-on-sheath sound as it is pulled from a cloth scabbard, while in others the sound of metal on flesh is so believable it makes me flinch. Costumes are nice (especially the red guards) and production design is very impressive.The screenplay is nice and simple - Mathayus' brother is killed during a botched assassination and he seeks revenge. The extended edition reveals a prophecy played central part - I'm much happier without that. However, the dialogue and characters are cheesy and shallow. We never even learn half the main characters' names (Heslov goes by "horse thief" or "my friend" while Hu goes by "Sorceress"). There's some choice humour and some that doesn't land ("there's no need to be concerned miss" is lame even by 10 year old standards").On the acting front, the highlights include the gorgeous Kelly Hu as Cassandra, a lovable Bernard Hill as Philos and Michael Clarke Duncan as Nubian King Balthazar. What a gem this guy was - this is the film that introduced me to him. He's such a beast with his deep voice and bulging muscles, going toe-to-toe with Johnson in a brawl that starts because both men are so strong their swords shatter on impact. If you don't laugh at that you're made of stone. Brand has his moments as the antagonist Memnon, great from a physical standpoint even though he can't quite carry the serious moments. Grant Heslov drives me insane with his high-pitched voice and goofy sidekick persona.The Scorpion King is a great guilty pleasure. Its simple storyline stops it being goofy, and its awesome fight scenes between beefcake actors make it worth your while. Imagine Predator meets Gladiator with a pinch of Mortal Kombat, and you've got a fair idea.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com The ability to win over new fans is not easy when one is shoved into the limelight so quickly. After briefly appearing as The Scorpion King in Stephen Sommers' anticipated sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), Universal Studios believed that it was time to create their spin-off starring none other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Originally only taking part in wrestling, Johnson was bit by the acting bug and agreed to star in this film as his feature debut. As known by many, this spin-off movie was a prequel, to a sequel of a movie that was a remake of an older movie. Sounds confusing, but it can be understood. Once you think about it, it does make sense. As for being a well-written story,..not really. There are a lot of pluses to this film but it has its drawbacks too.As a film that tells the background to how Mathayus, The Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson) got his name, it doesn't really declare itself publicly. Yet somehow, everyone knows by the end. Originally, Mathayus belonged to a group of hired assassins during a time when a ruthless dictator known as Memnon (Steven Brand) was looking to conquer everybody and anybody. Mathayus and his fellow assassins were hired to take out Memnon and a powerful sorceress (Kelly Hu) who sees visions of the future. All the same like other assassins hired to kill, they end up getting caught caring too much. This happens when Mathayus and the sorceress become attached to each other. As an origin story, the narrative is mostly predictable. Also, since it is a prequel, audiences already have an idea of what is going to happen. However, this doesn't make the viewing experience unwatchable. Aside from the story being a touch too cliché, there are a couple of other setbacks.The first belongs to the sorceress' powers to see into the future. There isn't any logic behind this other than it just being shown that she has these powers. In other words, the audience just has to accept this as a fact and not care about the reasoning. Yet for viewers who have a harder time shutting off their brain or are just more inquisitive, the understanding behind how she acquired her powers would've been appreciated to have. The other issue is the tone of the script, which constantly flip-flops in the midst of goofy and serious. Thus, the end result tends to be an entire cheese fest because you want to take the story seriously but can't because of how certain situations are handled. Having a character give a rather immature nod to the audience because someone went to bed with them, kind of breaks the rules on how serious a viewer can take this story. Another example is pairing up the protagonist with mildly unneeded sidekick named Arpid (Grant Haslov). Most of his comments are just too obvious to be even said. As for who wrote those moments into the script, it most likely belonged to William Osborne (best known for writing Twins (1988) & everyone's hated Stallone film Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)). The other writing credits belong to Stephen Sommers (rightfully so) and David Hayter (X-Men (2000), X-Men 2 (2003) & Watchmen (2009)). So it's not like every writer behind this production didn't have the credentials. The directing was also headed competently by the underrated Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988) remake & The Mask (1994)). Even with its cheese factor, the main cast is able to perform okay. Dwayne Johnson was no doubt the right choice to be Mathayus because what would a spin-off origin movie be if the actor doesn't return to play the role he made? Steven Brand is a worthy opponent to Johnson but it probably would've been an even better idea if Michael Clarke Duncan (who plays along side Johnson) was the enemy. It just would've been a better showdown.Kelly Hu is attractive in her own right and doesn't give a bland performance either. The rest of the cast (including Grant Haslov) also act okay but nothing that is of much importance. They do help near the end and add to the overall cheese at times but they a necessity. Cinematography was ably contributed by John R. Leonetti who was able to mimic Adrian Biddle's work from Sommers' The Mummy (1999) universe. There are lots of desert shots, while the set pieces appear grand and ancient. The action was also well choreographed and since sword fights aren't exactly the most used types of action sequences; it entertains. For the musical score, John Debney composed behind the film. For this listening experience, Debney uses a blend of organic orchestra with what also sounds like occasional rock/pop beats. This was probably used in order to accommodate Johnson's fans but the beats actually don't mess with the score too much. The action cues sound appropriate with the scene it follows and it's in line with the genre. If the story to this movie was taken a little more seriously, this probably would've entertained more.Its script is not clear on everything and its unequal tone makes the actors look occasionally cheesy on film. It's okay in some ways and others not so much. Luckily, the camera-work, action, music and main cast are able to manipulate it in their favor to entertain on very mindless level.

jbonner71 The way I see it, there are two ways to look at The Scorpion King: as a guy's guy, in which case TSK is the best movie ever made in the history of cinema, or as a critically thinking, intellectual male, in which case TSK is a somewhat amusing, 90-minute exercise in historical inaccuracy. Either way, I think the world would be an infinitely better place with Kelly Hu running about in skimpy outfits whilst pretending to be important. But…that could just be the (highly uninformed) opinion of my penis. Mr. Penis tends to cloud my judgment sometimes and here, he almost succeeded in convincing me that The Scorpion King is a good movie. But, all he really convinced me of was that I like Kelly Hu. A lot.There really isn't much story in The Scorpion King — a spin-off of The Mummy movies — but what little story there is focuses on Mathayus (The Rock, in his first starring role), the last of the Akkadians, and his quest to capture the precognitive sorceress (the aforementioned Hu) of the despotic king, Memnon (Steven Brand). There is also some nonsense about a band of "free" rebels, led by Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan) but, at the end of the day, all this flick needs is The Rock kicking much ass. And he does that. Quite well, actually.The Scorpion King was originally in theaters in 2002, but was just released on Blu-ray this recently. Both visually and aurally, this disc shines. It both looks and sounds great in the high-def format. It's in the extras department where this disc is lacking. There are interactive, documentary featurettes that you can access at various points in the film, but I always find these distracting and they don't really offer any great insights into the filmmaking process. I mean, who really wants to hear The Rock waxing rhapsodically about the desert locations where the film was shot? I know I don't. All I want to see is the goddamn People's Eyebrow, which is noticeably absent from this entire production.There is also a commentary track from director Chuck Russell, which is informative on a certain level but you won't be missing much if you decide to it skip entirely. And that's it for special features on this disc.All in all, if you're a fan of The Rock, the WWE, and big, dumb action movies then, by all means, this is the disc for you. Crank it up and let the Godsmack tunage blow you through the back wall of your goddamn living room. Otherwise, save your money and wait for the Blu-ray release of the infinitely more satisfying (on many, many levels…) Dark City.